The Boy Who Vanished (Book 1: Anonymous)
by phoenixfelicis07
Summary: Harry Potter never arrives at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Well… officially. The boy who boards the train on September first bears no identifying scar on his forehead, and no one on the platform recognizes him as the hero of the wizarding world. In fact, no one knows what happened to Harry Potter all those years ago, the night that he and the Dark Lord vanished…


**October 31, 1981**

The little house in Godric's Hollow was a place of refuge for the Potters during the war; a place where no one could find them. Only their closest friends had been trusted with their location. The isolation was a blessing and a curse. Lily and James were very happy to have a chance to raise their infant son Harry in relative safety while their world was in such turmoil. James however found their living arrangements rather stifling since he could do nothing to contribute to the war effort while his friends risked their lives every day, and visits from said friends were therefore few and far between.

On Halloween, the Potters indulged in the holiday by dressing their son in a muggle werewolf costume (courtesy of their friend Sirius Black, who found it simply hilarious) and snacking on various Honeydukes sweets that they had saved for the occasion while Lily read The Tales of Beedle the Bard to young Harry. The day was pleasant enough for having to stay indoors, and the family spent it together happily.

As dusk approached, and Lily cleaned up the kitchen after dinner, James took Harry into the living room to play before bed time. Drawing a thin length of mahogany from his sleeve, James began to conjure puffs of colored smoke, much to his son's amusement. Lily entered the room to find Harry laughing and trying to catch the smoke that his father was producing. Her long red hair fell over her face as she chided her husband for getting Harry worked up so soon before bed, and then she took the child from his arms and headed upstairs to put him to sleep.

"Night, Kiddo," James called after them as he threw the mahogany wand aside and relaxed into the sofa, waiting for his wife to return.

Lily was carrying her giggling son to his cot when she heard the front door to the house burst open and she heard James yell up the stairs that _he_ had come, the one they were hiding from. Slamming the door to the nursery and clutching Harry to her chest, she heard the sounds of her husband's murder and green light shone through the cracks in the door as she screamed. Having left her own willow shaft in the kitchen, she had no way of escape from the man making his way up the stairs toward them, so she started to barricade the door. The chair and boxes that she had hastily piled in front of the door were cast aside as the man in the hooded cloak and red eyes forced the door open.

The man told the frightened mother to stand aside as he pointed a long yew shaft at the boy she had placed in the cot behind her, but she refused to abandon her son and offered herself in his stead.

"Not Harry, please no, take me, kill me instead – Not Harry! Please… have mercy… have mercy… Not Harry! Not Harry! Please – I'll do anything – "

With a flash of blinding green light, Lily Potter lay on the ground before her child's crib, eyes vacant and chest still. Through all of this Harry had remained silent and attentive, however when the cloaked man pointed the wand of yew into his face, and he had seen that it was not his father, but a stranger beneath the hood, the boy began to cry. The man spoke above the child's sobs, summoning yet another beam of blinding green light, " _Avada Kedavra!_ "

The mysterious cloaked man disappeared from the room with a bang as the roof of the nursery and one of the walls was blown outwards into the yard. Little Harry fell back into his crib, tears streaming down his cheeks and a strange cut now bleeding on his forehead. The child soon started to scream for his mother who lay unresponsive on the floor below him. As if summoned by his screams, a new figure appeared in the doorway to the nursery, this time cloaked in dark forest green. Carefully stepping around Lily Potter's body, the figure reached into the crib and scooped up the wailing infant. Despite not being familiar with this new person, Harry seemed to take comfort from the sense of safety they projected and started to calm down. Wrapping the now sniffling child in their cloak, the figure turned on their heel and vanished with a quiet pop just as a speck of light appeared in the distance signaling the arrival of one Sirius Black on his flying motorcycle, coming to visit his best friends on All Hallows Eve.

* * *

 _General Disclaimer: characters and basic plot all belong to the wonderful JKR_


End file.
